It’s Friday again and time for the next review of an upcoming statewide ballot measure which will appear on the November 2007 election ballot. Today, we will review Engrossed Senate Joint Resolution 8206 — the so-called “Rainy Day Fund” ballot measure. The state constitution currently does not require the state to maintain a budget reserve account although state

Barbara Baker has been tapped by House Speaker Frank Chopp to be the next Chief Clerk of the state House of Representatives. Baker replaces Rich Nafiziger who left to become the staff director for the Senate Democratic Caucus. Baker has worked for the House Democratic Caucus since 1996, serving a policy director for the past seven

Rep. David Buri, a Republican from Colfax who represents the 9th legislative district in southeastern Washington will resign his post on November 1st to become the government relations director for Eastern Washington University. Buri replaces another former House of Representatives member Jeff Gombosky, who had served in the government relations post until leaving last year

The 2007 November general election is about one month away so I thought it might be a good idea to provide some focus on each of the statewide ballot measures that will be considered over the next several weeks. We have already posted quite a bit about Initiative 960 which is sponsored by Tim Eyman and

As I was sitting last night in the Everett Events Center for a town hall meeting on the new UW North Puget Sound campus, I was struck by the steady parade of representatives from local businesses who came up to the microphone to describe their dire need for more college graduates in science, technology, engineering

One of the worst kept secrets in Olympia over the past couple of months is the persistent rumor that Dr. Chang Mook Sohn, the long-time head of the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (which determines official general fund revenue projections) would run for state treasurer in 2008 when incumbant Mike Murphy steps down. Today,

You may recall that this summer, the Office of State Relations began publishing a quarterly report called Global Challenge State Update. The purpose of the report is to provide interested parties with information on higher education fiscal and policy matters in those states which the UW is now being benchmarked against for both funding and accountability

Sorry to have neglected the blog this past week, but I’ve been on the road a lot and today and tomorrow are legislative assembly meetings in Olympia (more on that later). First, the bad news. Spent last weekend in Los Angeles with an old friend from Sacramento days who is a big UCLA fan. We went to the

Governor Gregoire announced this morning that current TVW President (and former UW Regent) Cindy Zehnder, will replace current chief of staff Tom Fitzsimmons who announced his resignation earlier this week. Zehnder is a very familiar face in Olympia, having previously served as Chief Clerk in the House of Representatives and a deputy commissioner at the

The Governor’s office announced this afternoon that Tom Fitzsimmons, her chief of staff since taking office in January 2005 will step down. Fitzsimmons has decided to resign his position after serving in the position for the past two and a half years. Fitzsimmons also served as Governor Gary Locke’s chief of staff for the last 18